


Tea and Ginger Biscuits

by tinydooms



Category: The Mummy (1999), The Mummy Series
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Libraries, Marriage Proposal, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:00:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27049825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinydooms/pseuds/tinydooms
Summary: Evie prattled on, leaning on her elbows as Rick arranged the tea tray, adding milk from a bottle he kept cooling in an ice-filled vase and adding a plateful of ginger biscuits from a tin on the sideboard. He listened with one ear, letting Evie’s words wash over him, content as he had never been before. They had been re-organizing the card catalogue all afternoon, re-filing the cards into new sections and writing up new ones. It was work that Rick enjoyed, simple and repetitive, but never boring. He had paused to make them a snack. One thing Rick had learned about Evelyn was that when she was really absorbed in something, she would forget to eat; thus, he had set up provisions. He carried the tea tray to the desk and set it down, pouring her out strong tea with milk and one sugar, just how she liked it.
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Tea and Ginger Biscuits

**Tea and Ginger Biscuits**

_Cairo, November 1922_

“Do you know, I’ve spent a part of nearly every year of my life in Egypt and I’ve never been to Aswan?”

Rick turned from the tiny hot plate on Evelyn’s office sideboard and raised his eyebrows. The statement had come from nowhere. “Miss Carnahan, I find that fact shocking in the extreme.”

“Don’t tease,” Evie said, signing off a catalogue card and adding it to the stack at her elbow. “You’re right, though. It _is_ odd. Mother and Father always preferred to work in the Valley of the Kings, and I can’t say I blame them considering the luck they had there, but for some reason they disdained Aswan. I can’t imagine why.”

Rick took the kettle off the hot plate and poured boiling water into a teapot. “Maybe they went there once and somebody was rude to your mother?”

“I doubt that; people were often rude to Mother, but she never let it stop her from doing what she wanted. I wonder--”

Evie prattled on, leaning on her elbows as Rick arranged the tea tray, adding milk from a bottle he kept cooling in an ice-filled vase and adding a plateful of ginger biscuits from a tin on the sideboard. He listened with one ear, letting Evie’s words wash over him, content as he had never been before. They had been re-organizing the card catalogue all afternoon, re-filing the cards into new sections and writing up new ones. It was work that Rick enjoyed, simple and repetitive, but never boring. He had paused to make them a snack. One thing Rick had learned about Evelyn was that when she was really absorbed in something, she would forget to eat; thus, he had set up provisions. He carried the tea tray to the desk and set it down, pouring her out strong tea with milk and one sugar, just how she liked it. 

Rick loved this. He had jokingly called himself Evie’s assistant that first day with her at the library, but now he simply _was,_ and it was wonderful. Helping her clean up the library, picking up books and putting them away, organizing and repairing and alphabetizing then, going home with her after a long day and relaxing at the Zamalek house that Rick had begun to identify as home: this was medicine to him after the long, lost years after the War. It reminded him of the happy times in Marrakech, back before the War, when he had been a burgeoning antiquities dealer, a young man with a trade and hope. Only it was so much _better_ now, in every possible way. Now Rick had Evie and she was the most wonderful, the best thing that had ever happened to him. He poured her tea and passed her the ginger biscuits and leaned on his elbow, watching her as she talked, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“...on Elephantine Island; I don’t think anyone’s excavated the temple there in something like twenty years. And certainly no one has done a really thorough photographic examination of the carvings and stele since at least 1910--”

A great surge of affection filled Rick for this indefatigable, adventurous librarian. Barely four weeks had passed since they had fought for their lives at Hamunaptra and survived and already Evelyn wanted to go out again. Seeing the smile on his face, Evie faltered. 

“Do you think I’m being foolish?”

“No, Evie,” Rick said. “I think you’re wonderful.”

“Oh, good.” Evie brightened again. “We could make it a holiday, you know. Sail up to Aswan and stay at the Old Cataract Hotel and go to the Island with cameras--”

Nodding his agreement, Rick took up a pencil and a blank index card and wrote on it. He slid the card across the table to Evie, who picked it up almost absentmindedly. Her voice trailed off as she read and registered the question. Her lips parted; she looked up at Rick with her glowing green eyes very wide. 

“Well?” His heart was pounding; his voice was shy. “What do you think?”

A grin broke across Evie’s face. Lifting her pen, she scribbled a word on the card and pushed it back across the desk to him. _Yes._

Joy flooded Rick like water bursting from a dam. He and Evie grinned at each other, laughing, giddy, and she came around the desk to sit on his lap and kiss him. Rick cuddled her close and leaned his forehead against hers. He couldn’t wait to see what adventures lay in store for them. 

Author's Note: this was written in answer to a prompt over on Tumblr. I'm going to make this set of stories into a series, a place to post fluffy O'Connell/Carnahan family stories so that they're not running amok on my page. If you want to request a story, [please feel free to do so](https://tinydooms.tumblr.com/ask)! Also, as of 16 October 2020 I am reposting this from A Book of Life into it's own one-shot. I didn't like the previous set up, so I'm fixing it. 


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